Percentage of senior executives and managers who keep a list of things to do every day, according to NFI Research: 93

Number of them who complete everything on the list by the end of the workday: 0

Percentage who finish 50 percent or less of their list each day: 51

Source: NFI Research.

When Americans were asked how they would rate the overall state of moral values in the country today, percentage who said "excellent," according to a Gallup Poll: 1

Percentage who said only fair: 38

Percentage who said poor: 45

Source: Gallup.

Percentage of business owners with between two and 10 employees who are earning more than they had hoped to make when they started their companies, according to a survey by SnagAJob.com: 21

Average number of hours these small business owners say they put in every week toward their business: 58

Source: SnagAJob.com.

Estimated percentage of the variance in math and reading grades that can be accounted for by children's social and emotional skills, according to a study conducted by the Devereux Center for Resilient Children and the Anchorage, Alaska, School District: 25

Source: Devereux Center.

Percentage of Americans who rely highly on Google searches as a source of health care information, according to a survey conducted by Capstrat and Public Policy Polling: 22

Rank of Google in terms of influence in seeking health information: 2 (Second only to doctors -- 44 percent.)

Source: Capstrat and Public Policy Polling.

Average amount of money that car owners can save annually by opting for their local independent repair shop versus the car dealership, according to AutoMD.com: $300

Approximate amount of money spent annually at dealership service centers: $56.7 billion

Source: AutoMD.com.

Year that the first disc-type phonograph record was demonstrated publicly, an invention of Emile Berliner of Washington, D.C., according to the U.S. Census Bureau: 1888

Decade when these discs were replaced by compact discs: 1980s

In 2000, estimated value of CD sales: $13 billion

Today, estimated value of CD sales, as consumers turn to downloaded digital music: $13 billion

Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

Percentage of teen passenger deaths that occur in vehicles driven by another teen, according to an analysis of crash data from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety: 60

Percentage of teens who admit to feeling unsafe with another teen's driving, according to a survey by The Allstate Foundation: 75

Percentage who are willing to speak up in risky driving situations: 59

Percentage of teen girls who report they will say something in dangerous situations on the road, versus 66 percent of teen boys: 53

Source: Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Percentage of firms with more than 1,000 employees that achieved at least a 6 percent increase in revenue compared to the previous reporting year, according to a survey of investment managers released by SimCorp StrategyLab: 52

Ranks of the introduction of new products, targeting new client segments and entering new geographic markets on the list of key growth acceleration strategies: 1, 2, 3

Source: SimCorp Strategy Lab.

Percentage of chief executives of Fortune 100 companies who have substantial international experience, according to a study by Healthy Companies International: 75

Percentage of top CEOs who had held a senior overseas assignment 10 years ago: 54

Source: Healthy Companies International. Contact Stephen Parker at 703-879-3381 or e-mail Stephen.Parker@healthycompanies.com.

Idle Thought

"A couple of months in the laboratory can save a couple of hours in the library." -- Frank H. Westheimer, chemistry professor

(Readers can contact John MacIntyre at johnmacintyre(at)bwr.eastlink.ca.)

Number of times more lawyers per capita in the District of Columbia than there are in any state in the country, according to the U.S. Census and Martindale-Hubbell: 13.8

Source: See http://www.averyindex.com/lawyers_per_capita.php.

Percentage of Wall Street professionals who say they have been approached at least once by headhunters since the start of 2010, according to a survey by eFinancialCareers: 72

Percentage of the respondents who indicated the number of calls was substantially or moderately higher than last year: 44

Percentage of respondents who said their current employer hasn't offered any positive incentives to deter them from moving to another firm: 82

Source: eFinancialCareers.

Percentage of parents who regret the names they have chosen for their children, according to a study by bounty.com: 20

Percentage of people who are fed up with the sheer number of other children sharing the same moniker: 19

Percentage of parents who say that much to their dismay, their child's forename has been the cause of amusement among friends and family: 15

Source: Bounty.com.

Of the number of special observances in May (ranging from National Vinegar Month to National Smile Month), rank of Root Canal Appreciation Day on the list of the most intriguing, according to the U.S. Census Bureau: 1

Estimated number of teeth that are saved each year by the procedure: 17 million

As a nation, estimated total annual bill for dental services: $100 billion

Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

Rank of Baltimore on the list of the "Most Dangerous Cities for Drivers," according to a study from insurance.com: 1

Percentage of drivers in Baltimore who claim a prior accident when receiving a car insurance comparison quote from insurance.com: 36.5

Percentage of drivers in Yuma, Ariz., who claim a prior accident when receiving a car insurance comparison quote from insurance.com, the safest city in the country: 17.2

Source: Insurance.com.

Percentage of employers who say they plan to hire seasonal workers for the summer, according to CareerBuilder's annual summer jobs forecast: 22

Percentage of employers who say they are planning to hire the same amount of summer workers as last year: 15

Percentage of companies that reported they would consider some of their seasonal recruits for permanent placement within their organizations when the summer ends: 57

Source: CareerBuilder.com.

Rank of songs from the soundtrack of the classic "Rocky" films on the list of the most motivational songs to run to for the fourth year in succession, according to a poll of marathon runners by realbuzz.com: 1

Ranks of "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor, "Keep on Running" by the Spencer Davis Group, and "Chariots of Fire" by Vangelis as the most popular individual songs: 1, 2, 3

Source: Realbuzz.com.

Percentage of global business executives who view public CEO apologies as less effective than other strategies to repair tarnished company reputations, according to an 11-country survey by global public relations firm Weber Shandwick and KRC Research: 59

Percentage of business leaders who say the best steps to beginning the reputation recovery process are announcing specific actions the company will take to fix the problem: 76

Percentage who believe the company should create an early warning system: 76

Source: Weber Shandwick.

Percentage of chief financial officers who said today's accounting grads might have more success cutting their teeth at smaller companies than at public accounting firms or big corporations, according to a survey developed by Accountemps: 56

When asked what area of specialization they would recommend for newly minted graduates, percentage of CFOs who said general accounting: 60

Source: Accountemps.

Percentage of business professionals who are either very concerned or somewhat concerned that there may be a "double dip" in the economy, according to the results of a Deloitte Financial Advisory Services survey: 85

Percentage of respondents who think that some cost-cutting measures that their company implemented to weather the recession will be enforced during the upturn: 63

Percentage of respondents who believe that their company will not fully recover from the recession until after 2011: 31

Source: Deloitte Financial Advisory Services LLP.

Idle Thought

"Once we assuage our conscience by calling something a 'necessary evil,' it begins to look more and more necessary and less and less evil." -- Sydney J. Harris, journalist

(Readers can contact John MacIntyre at johnmacintyre(at)bwr.eastlink.ca.)

Percentage of office workers who described their workplace restrooms as "always being super-clean," according to the results of a survey conducted by Infogroup/ORC on behalf of Kimberly-Clark Professional: 38

Percentage who described visiting the restroom as "a 50-50 gamble -- sometimes clean, other times a disaster": 26

Source: Kapnek Communications.

Percentage of employees today who say that one of their pet peeves at work is having to deal with people with poor time-management skills, according to a survey byRandstad survey: 43

Percentage who say that dealing with gossip is a problem: 36

Percentage of employees who say that messiness in communal spaces is their pet peeve: 25

Percentage who are bothered by loud noises such as speaker phones, loud talkers and ring tones: 21

Source: Ipsos Public Affairs.

Percentage of Americans who say there is a God who answers prayers, according to a USA Today/Gallup Poll: 83

Percentage of respondents who reject the notion that prayer is effective only if done regularly: 75

Percentage of Americans who disagree with the idea that prayer works only for those who hold certain religious beliefs: 80

Source: Gallup.

Average number of TV sets per household in the U.S., up from 2.86 sets per home in 2009, the largest year-over-year increase since 2006, according to Nielsen's Television Audience Report: 2.93

Percentage of U.S. homes with three or more TV sets: 55

Average number of people per home in which there's a TV (carrying on the trend of more TVs per home than people): 2.5

Source: Nielsen Analytics.

Of businesses founded in 2004 and tracked over their early years of existence, number that survived 2008, according to a Kauffman Foundation study: 2,606

Increase in the number of employees by surviving employer firms from 4.6 employees in 2004: 2.1

Percentage of firms that had revenues greater than $100,000 by 2008, compared with just 21 percent in 2004: 33

Percentage of the total firms that are high-technology businesses: 5.6

Percentage four-year survival rate of these high-tech firms: 91

Percentage four-year survival rate for non-high-tech firms: 61

Source: Kaufman Foundation.

Ranks of financial rewards and incentives, training and development opportunities, and brand affiliation as the key tools retail executives cite to motivate and retain top talent, according to the Deloitte/National Retail Federation Survey: 1, 2, 3

Source: Deloitte.

Percentage of Americans over age 65 who will need long-term care at home or through adult day health care, or care in an assisted living facility or nursing home, according to Genworth's 2010 Cost of Care Surve: 66

Median annual rate for a private nursing home room in 2005: $60,225

Median annual rate today: $75,190.

Source: Genworth Financial.

Percentage of Americans who have a negative reaction to the word "militia," according to the findings of a national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press: 65

Percentage of respondents who have a negative reaction to the word "socialism," though 29 percent react positively: 59

Percentage who have a negative reaction to the word "capitalism," though 52 percent react positively: 37

Percentage who have a negative reaction to the words "family values": 9 (89 percent react positively)

Source: Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.

Percentage of Americans who do not agree that illegal aliens are entitled to the same rights and basic freedoms as U.S. citizens, according to a Zogby Interactive poll: 79

Percentage of Americans who want major reform in immigration policy: 72

Percentage who favor guest-worker programs: 71

Source: Zogby International.

Year (by presidential proclamation) that May was selected to recognize one of the nation's fastest-growing population groups -- those of Asian and Pacific American heritage: 1978

Today, number of people in the U.S. who are of Asian heritage, about 5 percent of the total population: 15.5 million

Percentage of the population of Hawaii that is Asian: 54

Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

Percentage of active employment-based individual account retirement-plan assets that are owned by families with white, non-Hispanic heads of households, according to a study released by the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI): 85.1

Percentage of these active employment-based retirement assets that are owned by families in the top 10 percent of net worth: 50

Percentage of all financial assets that are held by these families: 50

Source: EBRI.

Idle Thought

"One cannot do right in one department of life whilst he is occupied in doing wrong in any other department. Life is one indivisible whole." -- Mohandas Gandhi

(Readers can contact John MacIntyre at johnmacintyre(at)bwr.eastlink.ca.)